Puri Yatra: Under curfew

The Supreme Court on Monday reversed its Friday’s verdict and allowed the world famous Jagannath Rath Yatra at Puri, but with a rider that there will be no devotees and other stringent conditions.

The Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde has ordered that a curfew be clamped in the city of Puri on all days of the Rath Yatra from 8 pm on Monday, hours after the start of the Yatra and closure of all entry points to the city, including airports, railway stations and bus stands.

In an 8-page order allowing the Rath Yatra with strict restrictions, the Bench also directed that during the curfew, no one would be allowed to step out of their house or place of residence, such as hotels, lodging houses, etc.

Here are some of the instructions in the 11-point directive issued by the court while allowing the yatra:

• Each Rath (chariot) shall be pulled by not more than 500 persons who have tested negative for the Corona virus and this number shall include officials and police personnel and they shall maintain social distancing before, during and after the Yatra. There shall be an interval of one hour between two chariots. The Rath Yatra involves altogether three chariots.

• Primary responsibility in conducting the Yatra rests with the committee, the in-charge of Puri Jagannath Temple Administration and Officers designated by the state government.

• In the rituals associated with the Yatra, a minimal number and only those who have tested negative will be allowed.

--The state government will maintain a record of all those participating in the Yatra or the rituals, along with details of their medical conditions after testing.

The court has, however, empowered Odisha government to take decisions keeping in mind the larger public good and said that the State can even stop the ‘yatra’ or festivities, if they feel it is going out of hand.

Stating that it is not possible for it to "micro-manage" the event, the court left the matter to the wisdom of the state, the Centre and the temple management.

CM Naveen Patnaik immediately convened a meeting in Bhubaneshwar to coordinate and implement the top court's order.

Before the 3-judge Bench assembled for a special hearing, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also spoke to Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, head of the temple managing committee, and discussed the nitty-gritty of the Yatra.

Later, Odisha BJP President Sameer Mohanty tweeted that "Amit Shah spoke to Gajapati on the instructions of another Lord Jagannath Bhakt PM Narendra Modi."

The Apex Court had on Friday banned this year's Yatra on grounds of public health and safety of citizens, on a petition filed by NGO Odisha Vikas Parishad, with the CJI stressing that "Lord Jagannath won't forgive us if we allow" it.

During the 9-day long festival of the Trinity at Puri, three heavily-built wooden chariots of Lord Jagannath (Krishna), his elder brother Lord Balabhadra (Balram) and sister Devi Subhadra are traditionally pulled by thousands of devotees over a distance of three kilometre twice.

IMPORTANCE: The Rath Yatra symbolises the journey of Lord Jagannath (Krishna) from Dwarka, the kingdom that he ruled, to Brij Bhoomi (modern-day Mathura and Vrindavan), a place where he grew up. The process of pulling the chariot symbolises the purification of mind and is an act of surrendering to the supreme. The local king, known as Gajapati, dresses up like a sweeper and cleans the road with a golden-handled broom.

BAN IN GUJARAT: Meanwhile, the annual Jagannath Rath Yatra, which is held at Ahmedabad, in tandem with the one at Puri, has been banned by the Gujarat High Court. A Bench comprising its Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice J B Pardiwala issued orders not to hold any Rath Yatra at Ahmedabad, or any other district in Gujarat.